Mark Dean Veca’s Installation for Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose

Hi-Fructose Vol. 23 featured artist Mark Dean Veca’s colorful, dynamic paintings pop off the page in bright red, orange, and turquoise hues, with curvaceous lines inspired by the underground comic world. His work incorporates everything from pop culture references like Tony the Tiger and Scrooge McDuck to Americana elements like the Lincoln Memorial to the American Flag, to religious iconography including skulls, Buddhas, and Ganeshas – all filtered through his own gaze. The Los Angeles based artist is now in Virginia, where we’ve invited him to create special installation for the Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose, opening tonight at Virginia MOCA.

Veca’s recently completed indoor installation and outdoor crosswalk piece for Turn the Page took the artist several weeks to complete and display his psychedelic treatment of contemporary imagery. Through simple changes of shape, color, and font, Veca is able to evoke powerful emotions with visual design. His “Crosswalk” piece, painted in bright candy yellow paint against flat black and white elements, will greet visitors into the museum space, where they can enjoy a much larger and immersive piece in greens, oranges, and yellows. Revealing a combination of maddening frenzy and pattern-like precision, the installation has been named “Madder Hatter”. The photos below are from a Behind the Scenes event hosted by the Virginia MOCA and their Leadership Society last week.

Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose is a collaborative initiative by two like-minded organizations – MOCA in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Hi-Fructose The New Contemporary Art Magazine in San Francisco, California. Both are committed to creating an awareness of contemporary art that is informative, imaginative and relevant. This multi-faceted exhibition will feature artists working in a variety of media including sculpture, installation, painting, ceramics, and photography as well as interactive community outreach and satellite exhibitions. A wide selection of educational programming, film screenings, panel discussions, and events will provide the public an opportunity to interact with the art and artists in exciting new ways.

The exhibition is presented by the City of Virginia Beach and supported through generous grants from the Virginia Tourism Corporation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by Acoustical Sheetmetal, Capital Group Companies, PRA Group, and the Fine Family Fund along with contributions from Virginia Natural Gas, Bank of America, BB&T, Clark Nexsen, Fulton Bank, Signature Family Wealth Management, VIA Design Architects and other MOCA supporters as well as grants made possible by the Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and the Business Consortium for Arts Support.

For more information about Turn the Page: Ten Years of Hi-Fructose, visit the museum online.